


say this city has ten million souls

by swimminginconfusion



Category: Naruto
Genre: Based on a Poem, Gen, Refugee Blues by WH Auden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 12:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9324131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swimminginconfusion/pseuds/swimminginconfusion
Summary: Fate is not kind to outsiders





	

 

> Say this city has ten million souls,  
>  Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:  
>  Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
> 
> Once we had a country and we thought it fair,  
>  Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:  
>  We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
> 
> In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,  
>  Every spring it blossoms anew:  
>  Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.
> 
> The consul banged the table and said,  
>  "If you've got no passport you're officially dead":  
>  But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
> 
> Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;  
>  Asked me politely to return next year:  
>  But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?
> 
> Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said;  
>  "If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread":  
>  He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.

Naruto doesn’t really remember when the name calling started.

“Demon brat!” ‘Killer!” “MONSTER!”

But he can’t imagine life without it.

He found himself running from the Academy, breath whistling through his teeth because Kiba knocked out a tooth in their spar today, eager to get home after a day filled with sniggering classmates and pitying teachers.

To be fair, the day wasn’t all bad. He hadn’t failed the History of Taijutsu test as badly as he thought he had, and this morning Ayame-nee-chan convinced Teuchi-jiji to give him some free ramen coupons, allowing him to splurge some money on oshiruko. Sasuke-teme was looking weird today, but that only meant that he didn’t give him those haughty, better-than-thou looks.

Well, not as many anyway.

As he neared the edge of town, to where his rundown apartment was located, he crossed through training ground 43 (he learnt his lesson a long time ago about passing next to Hachiro-teme-jiji’s shop), he spotted a small blue and black figure moping on the dock looking out onto the lake.

As he recognized his bastard classmate, he had to squash a surge of irritation about the fact that Sasuke was there first, even though they left the Academy and the same time. That only left him to wonder why he was so sad.

Sasuke had everything he ever wanted; fawning classmates, perfect grades and doting strangers for the times he was out of school. Naruto wanted to go up to him and bead him out of his misery and yell about how unfair it was that he was sad even though he had everything.

That moment, Sasuke looked up to inspect the intruder, giving Naruto a clear view of his face.

_‘Those eyes, they’re like mine. He’s… lonely.’_

As he looked away from those coal eyes, the crest on his back caught his attention.  
Now, Naruto was not the brightest student and in the future, he would seem like he had the emotional capability of a teaspoon (he would brag about this, feelings where for girls after all- at least, that’s what Kiba said). However, in that moment, the source of Sasuke’s sadness was clear to him.

_‘He wants to be acknowledged on his own terms, not as the last Uchiha,’ Naruto thought, ‘He wants to be acknowledged for his own hard work, for people to stop believing that the good grades he has, and his talent as a shinobi came with hard work. It was not a birth right, gifted to him. He doesn’t want to feel like an outsider in his own village, like I am. ’_

In that moment, every part of Naruto was screaming at him to help his misunderstood classmate. His palms itched in his pockets, wanting to hold the Uchiha’s in comfort, His heart empathised with the feeling of hard work being disregarded for the ideas that the people around them had, and his brain conjured up memory after memory of Sasuke looking at him in sympathy after he failed a test. He felt his breath come faster with the opportunity of making his first friend and tears came to his eyes at the thought of not being alone anymore.

Sasuke, still sitting on the dock, mistook Naruto’s teary expression for pity, and glared at the blond.

The spell shattered.

Naruto could feel himself crumbling. After all, why would the ‘Most Promising Student’ want to be friends with the ‘Dead last’ when he had Sakura-chan and Ino-chan vying for his attention. He was probably just sad that he couldn’t graduate early to get away from the “demon brat”, and it had nothing to do with the way he was treated at school. He was probably like all those shop keepers that gave him rice balls and insulted him on his way home.

Naruto scrunched up his face in an attempt to hold back his tears, turned away and walked home, not paying attention to the clever eyes that followed him until he turned the corner.

> Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;  
>  It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":  
>  O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.
> 
> Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,  
>  Saw a door opened and a cat let in:  
>  But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.
> 
> Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,  
>  Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:  
>  Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.
> 
> Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;  
>  They had no politicians and sang at their ease:  
>  They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.
> 
> Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,  
>  A thousand windows and a thousand doors:  
>  Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.
> 
> Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;  
>  Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:  
>  Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fanfic, but dont go easy, flay me if i deseve it.


End file.
